Traditional medicine, plasma injection or corticosteroids: in the main hospital in Shanghai which receives patients infected with the new coronavirus, a cocktail of treatments is offered to patients.
The prospect of a Covid-19 pneumonia vaccine is still distant. Doctors, in China as elsewhere, are forced to use other methods in the hope of curing patients.
This is the case at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center – the most populous city in China (24 million inhabitants). The yellow structure, built during the SARS epidemic (2002-2003), has been enlarged in recent weeks to cope with the influx of patients.
But his doctors recognize it: the coronavirus, which has already infected more than 72,000 people in China, including nearly 1,900 fatally, is pushing the healthcare system to its limits.
“Welcoming so many serious cases at the same time is a big challenge,” said Lu Hongzhou, the hospital’s deputy director, during a press visit organized by the authorities.
Shanghai has so far identified 333 infected people, including one dead. The Public Health Clinical Center received 96% of them, and currently has 184 patients, the rest being cured.
To treat them, the hospital uses antiviral drugs, corticosteroids (anti-inflammatory drugs) in particular, and uses traditional Chinese medicine.
“We have personalized treatments for severely ill patients because everyone’s health is different,” said Lu Hongzhou.
He said two patients who did not respond to antivirals were treated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), after which their condition improved.
“Combining Western and Chinese medicine has a very good effect,” he says, stressing that 90% of his patients are treated in part thanks to TCM.
Colleague Shen Yinzhong, director of medical services, stresses, however, that the hospital must perform “more clinical tests to ensure its safety and effectiveness.”
Like other hospitals, the Shanghai hospital also injects patients with blood plasma taken from ex-patients. It is believed to contain antibodies to lower the viral load of those severely affected.
“We are convinced that this method can be very effective,” said Lu Hongzhou in the corridors of his establishment, where specialists from other hospitals have joined the healthcare team, who can no longer take time off.
Doctors and nurses caring for the sick wear full coveralls. But the journalists were not allowed to see the patients, the hospital raising a health risk.
To protect staff, dozens of rooms have been put under “negative pressure”, a ventilation system allowing air to enter but not to exit.
“The harmful droplets exhaled by patients are sucked in and filtered,” says Lu. The goal: to prevent any escape of infectious agents.
(AFP)
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